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El Paralelo could not be less than other European cities and, in 1929, it inaugurated its Ba–Ta–Clan music hall, at the then Avenida de Marqués del Duero number 85 (now Paral·lel), corner of Poeta Cabanyes.
But the history of this place had begun at the beginning of the 20th century, as Gran Café del Recreo, open next to the Victoria Theater, inaugurated by the Soriano brothers.
The atmosphere that reigned in the Paralelo at that time made its owners forget about the café-concert and, in 1910, they began to hold music hall sessions, renaming the place Gran Café del Recreo.
Once again, the success and the expectations raised by the success of the shows presented, decided them to carry out an important reform to present the new Gran Music-Hall Novelty to society, a venue that, without having the pretensions of the great venues, attracted the residents of the neighborhood and the workers of the factories of the sector.
But it was not until 1924 that the premises were acquired by Francesc Serrano Arambul, the later owner of El Molino, who decided to carry out some important reforms and turn it into the new Spanish Bataclan, recalling the famous cabaret in Paris, located on Boulevard Voltaire, which was designed by Charles Duval in 1864.
The original Parisian Bataclan had taken its name from a well-known operetta by Jacques Offenbach, a German composer born in the 19th century and nationalized French, who obtained an important success with the operetta, since it recounted a scathing satire on all the current events of the moment.
The Ba-Ta-Clan has little history when it comes to artistic promotion, as it was not very prone to appear on the billboards. However, he had two episodes that made his memory last over time: first, the story of the journalist Manuel Tarín Iglesias and, second, the film A man called Flor de Otoño.
The journalist Manuel Tarín Iglesias, in one of his books, commented on his memories. He explains that when, on July 26, 1936, he was walking with a friend in front of the old Bataclan, converted into an FAI prison, and as they passed through the door, both were forced to enter the old “cabaret-prison” to gun point.
Inside the premises, they found on the stage that there were neither songs nor dancers, but several armed people sitting on chairs with their rifles and, in the stalls, “spectators without a show”, but rather the detainees, who were watched from the scenery.
When Tarin feared the worst, an old friend of his father recognizes him and tells his captor: “Throw this fucking brat out into the street. I know him well.” Taken to the exit door, on the street, the friend told him: “Manuel, we have just been born.”
The other story tells the story of Lluís Serracant, who recounted the historical events that took place during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship at the Bataclan theater. He was a labor lawyer, son of an illustrious Catalan family and who led a double life.
Serracant, as we say, was an illustrious labor lawyer by day and an anarchist homosexual by night, leader of a libertarian group that planned an attack on Primo de Rivera and who acts as a transvestite in nightclubs in Barcelona in the 1920s and 30. His story inspired the play by José María Rodríguez Méndez and the film A Man Called Flor de Otoño, directed by Pedro Olea and starring José Sacristán.
In the beginning, a young dancer known as Fernandita worked in the Bataclan ballet. This young lady, who was none other than Vicenta Fernández, ended up marrying the businessman Francisco Serrano Arambul.
In 1970, she became the famous businesswoman of the El Molino theater, after the death of her husband. After many years running the place, she sold it to the actor, rhapsode and businessman Ricardo Ardevol when she retired.
With the end of the civil war and the stubbornness of the Franco regime not to allow any name that was not Spanish, the Ba-Ta-Clan became Ra-Ta-Plan, which finally closed its doors in 1942, becoming a lumber warehouse.
Currently, the Hotel Paralelo is located in the old Bataclan.
